The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Page 10 THE HERALD Wednesday May 29 1M1 Editorial Allow disabled their dignity Georgetown resident Neil Brookbanks has a beef against the Town of Halton Hills Mr Brookbanks is disabled suffering from chronic osteoarthritis and chronic and feels he is be ing discriminated against because of his disabilities concerning the Towns snow removal policies Mr filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission over the snow removal issue and claimed in an interview with Halton Hills Herald senior reporter Ben Dummett Im not doing this for myself Im doing it for all handicapped in Town At present in the Town of Halton Hills there is no bylaw requiring residents to clear the snow from sidewalks fronting or abutting their property and similarly the Town decides which roads and sidewalks get priority for snow removal when three or four inches of the white fluffy flakes descend As Town of Halton Hills Mayor Russ Miller explain ed in a commonsense approach to snow removal People cant continue to demand more services and ob ject to higher taxes If every sidewalk was cleared peo ples taxes would be three times higher than they are now The Mayor makes a good point but to paraphrase a metaphor it still leaves the handicapped in Halton Hills out in the cold The handicapped both physically and mentally are constantly forced to deal with situations which might best be described as the ultimate in double jeopardy Their handicaps prevent them from leading a normal life and for the most part limitations are acknowledg ed But frustrations set in when nonhandicapped persons cant see beyond the limitations and either patronize or ignore those who are physically or mentally disabled This scenario is played out time after time in com munities throughout Canada including Halton Hills The times they are achanging however and both the federal and provincial governments are taking steps to get the handicapped back into the mainstream of Cana dian life Secretary of State Robert de Cotret the federal minister responsible for the disabled has announced a new fiveyear program to allow the disabled easier ac cess to education and better housing In unveiling the program Cotret was quoted as saying Quite a few of the proposals will take effect immediately As announced the program will involve federal departments focusing on employment transportation education and recreation for the disabled As noted in a Toronto Star story of the 33 million Canadians with disabilities only per cent are working compared to 70 per cent of the rest of the population Ontario Citizenship Minister Elaine Ziemba has also gone on record as saying the province wants to do more for the disabled We cant shut these people the disabl ed out of our society theyre very useful and they have resources the minister is quoted as saying Although Ms Ziemba hasnt elaborated on any pro vincial plans for the disabled she is quoted as saying We will see more disabled people working This past Monday Attorney General Howard Hamp ton introduced legislation at Queens Park designed to protect adults with mental disabilities from exploita tion abuse and neglect while giving adults who are men tally capable the legal right to create their own living will Hopefully the respective federal and provincial politi cians will live up to their promises to the disabled only time will tell At the crux of the matter however for the disabled is something no politician can legislate It is that innate core within the human called dignity Having lost a part of themselves due to a disability it is dignity more than anything else that the handicap ped person demands to retain Surely in our socalled enlightened society this is not too much to ask College reunion Dear Editor Hie Alumni Office at Fleming College wants to hear from you Please contact us at Sir Sand- ford Fleming College Sutherland Campus Brealey Drive Peter borough Ontario K9J 7Bi Phone 1501 or or Sir Sandford Fleming College Frost Campus PO Box Lindsay Ontario K9V Phone ext Please send us your change of address phone number and news We are approaching our 25th Anniversary in 1992 and many activities are being plann ed so dont miss out on these events Birrell Alumni Officer Sir Sandford Fleming College The Halton Hills HERALD Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established 1 866 A Division of Canadian Newspaper Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario ROBERT Publisher and General Manager 8772201 EDITORIAL COLIN Managing Editor Stall L ADVERTISING OAN TAYLOR MANAGER lalt Slack Robarta Craig I Kim PRODUCTION DAVE MANAGER Mylai CLASSIFIED Joan Jaiiop CIRCULATION Maria ACCOUNTING Jannl AiiounUr Ml SUBSCRIPTION RATES month Canada Ml all Harald claim a copyright on all original and adnrtliing malarial by Ita and In National Toronto Ontario IMS or MO Calhcart Manila I Tha agraai lhat pub 111 bar that labia lot damaaai tilling anon In bayond amount paid lor apaca actually by portion el ha In which occurred inch arror It dua lha 111 aartanji or and than no liability lot nan any bayond amount paid for NEW0UD6ET BRIGHTENS COLOURS especially pink AND ALTHOUGH THIS LITTLE OLD CREDIT RATING HAS SHRUNK it has more to do with the water temperature TOTTCH Peoples Forum NDP naivete ignorance deplored Dear Editor I become absolutely incensed when I see the naivete and ap parent ignorance shown by some of our new NDPMPPs I am referring in particular to Mr Noel Duignan and his recent report on the delayed auto in surance legislation Mr was trying to explain why his government has stalled in their move ahead with a new auto in surance plan for Ontario It is with Mr Duignans reference to the insurance in dustrys complaints of uncer tainty and indecision relating to their profits and not to the con cerns of drivers that I become embarrassed for Mr and his complete lack of understanding of the situation The new NoFault insurance system introduced last June has allowed auto insurance com panies to begin a return to pro fitable positions and premiums are coming down If it werent for the spectre of the Government takeover rates would be coming down even faster Premiums through the rose con siderably as claims costs rose These costs have now been con tained The industry is no longer paying half a billion dollars a year in legal costs and claims costs are more predictable recent return to profitability has seen the market competing for the consumers business and lowering rates State Farm has dropped its rates and Dominion of Canada has announced that it is going to follow suit Others will be following Whats holding com panies back is this political uncertainty In fact if it werent for the threat of Government taking over the auto insurance business the public would be benefitting now from even lower rates This begs the question of what guarantee there would be for lower insurance premiums as Mr Duignan suggests if the government takes over the in dustry Mr Justice Coulter Osborne did an extensive study of the industry and came to the con clusion that the lack of competi tion would erode any savings a government plan might provide Competition is the key to keeping the price of auto insurance as low as possible Good old Noel seems to think that profit for a company is a bad thing Has he forgotten that without profits companies shut down operations layoff employees reduce their product lines and availability and reduce pur chases of equipment and supplies necessary to produce their pro ducts thus affecting other com panies It appears so But it was convenient for his government to add a premium tax on auto in surance premiums in the last budget This will eat up whatever profits the companies are making and no doubt be passed onto us the consumer It seems that he has also forgot ten that insurance companies need a certain amount of profit or policyholder protection fund or else the government shuts them down Would Mr put his money in a bank that never made a profit and was on the verage of bankruptcy Pro bably not Would he trust his financial security to an insurance company that was not strong enough to back up its promise of protection It seems that that is exactly what he prefers I suppose that this should not come as a surprise to us when our NDP government has gone ahead and spent 97 billion dollars they dont Who will pay in the long run We will of course with higher taxes Do I want to trust my car insurance to this type of irresponsibility Never My letter wont come as a sur prise to Mr Duignan I have been trying to correspond with him since September It took him months lo respond to the first let ter and tliere has been no response to the second one writ ten in February Hows that for public service Maybe deep down he knows that his government cant fix something thats not broken Sincerely Sandra Moon Georgetown Write us a letter Tl Herald wants to hear from you If you have an opinion you want to express or a comment to make send us a letter or drop by the office Our address is Guelph Street Georgetown On tario All letters must be signed Please include your address and telephone number for verifica tion The Herald reserves the right to edit letters due to space limita tions